Need a little advice.

OK I'm not shooting a wedding, but a friend's father's birthday party at a hall. So I figured its pretty close and you all might be able to help me out a little. I have no idea what the lighting will be like.

I've got 2 lens choices: my 17-85 f/4 and my 50 f/1.8. I know the 50mm would be better for ambient light and DOF but I like the flexibility of the zoom and the 50mm might be a little long on my 350D. Anyways I plan on using my 580ex on a flash bracket anyways. But what would be the best settings for both? f/8 at sync speed? or open them up wide for better blur of the background? or something completely different?

i usually shoot F8 @ 60 or F5.6 @ 30. use ETTL for flash expsosure. a neat trick to getting great exposures is to FEL the face of the person, then recompose and take your shot. Just be sure to FEL on the person with the fairest skin.

the only time you really want to blur out the background (2.x -3.x) is if you intentionally want to draw attention to the subject

my 2 cents.

Thanks Beaconlightboy.

Anyone else?

Well my personal style includes a lot of background blurr so I like to keep the aperture as wide as possible. I would probly use aperture priority and set it to the widest point your lens will do and then have the camera set the shutter for you

not a bad idea, just remember you will lose the ability to control how exposed the background will be. i usuall take a few test shots at different shutter speeds and then pick the one i think provides the best color saturation and exposure of the background.

but i guess if you are going to blur out the background totally the exposure wont really matter as you cant make out whats back there anyway. but it's nice to be able to tell what was going on at the event in the background. sets the pictures mood.

my personal preference is to use as much ambient light as possible. Sometimes, I can get away with using just a 50 1.8 with NO flash all night for candids. If there isn't enough light, I set the camera to manual, and keep the aperture wide and shutter around the 1/40-1/60 range to get as much light in as I can. Then I fill the rest in with my 580 on a bracket with a lumiquest softbox. I'm almost always shooting 1600 for indoor evening events. I'm not sure how nice 1600 is on the 350D, but it is great on the 20D/30D.

It's all personal style. Some would be inclined to bounce everything off the ceiling with higher shutter speeds, but the lighting looks a little fake to me and loses the mood. If your location is just plain ugly anyways, then bounce away!

it's up to your own preference.

could you post some of your 1600 ISO shots. i am curious to see how well 1600 works. everyone says its ok, but i notice the noise.

You definitely see noise with ISO 1600 but its mostly visible in b&w images, not too much in color

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very nice, i noticed a lot of black and white, and post work, which is ok, but how much time do you put into a pic to clean it up.

Some pictures I keep the way they are noise and all because it just works for them. Some others I run through reduce noise twice to clean them up.

I heared people using programs to reduce noise but I havent found anything that I like.

I think that in b&w images the noise can be quite attractive.. but everyone has a different taste there.

Rather then using a program to reduce noise.. if you dont like them then use other methods but shooting on 1600... just my oppinion though

i agree the noise isnt really an issue in 1600 at all for the most part. i have hesitated using 1600 because i fear i will find a way to ruin the pics. but, i think i'm going to try some at my next wedding. by the way, i like the pics.

At 1600 you cant really ruin anything. Yes in the b&w you will see noise but not to a point that the picture would be ruined. If anything then it just adds the special touch... give it a go.
I think you can ruin more with a wrong used flash than a high ISO